Slashdot videos: Now with more Slashdot!

View

Discuss

Share

We've improved Slashdot's video section; now you can view our video interviews, product close-ups and site visits with all the usual Slashdot options to comment, share, etc. No more walled garden! It's a work in progress -- we hope you'll check it out (Learn more about the recent updates).

An anonymous reader writes "Following up on earlier work in the field, researchers at MIT are developing a process to print solar cells directly onto many common forms of paper. 'The technique represents a major departure from the systems used until now to create most solar cells, which require exposing the substrates to potentially damaging conditions, either in the form of liquids or high temperatures. The new printing process uses vapors, not liquids, and temperatures less than 120 degrees Celsius. These "gentle" conditions make it possible to use ordinary untreated paper, cloth or plastic as the substrate on which the solar cells can be printed. ... The resilient solar cells still function even when folded up into a paper airplane.'"

From 2007:
"GE Engineer Sees Competitive Photovoltaics In Under 10 Years"http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004702.html [futurepundit.com]"A high ranking engineer at General Electric says in some parts of the United States photovoltaics will become cost competitive by 2015."

And:http://gweedopig.com/index.php/2011/04/08/ge-bets-600-million-on-2015-solar-plant/ [gweedopig.com]"General Electric Co made a big push in solar power, saying it will invest $600 million to build a new factory as it pursues what it thinks could be an up to $3 billion business by 2015. The largest U.S. conglomerate, which over the last decade has made itself a leader in renewable energy, said it has designed a thin-film solar panel that converts sunlight to electricity more efficiently than rival products today. The move is likely to ramp up already intense price competition, particularly for First Solar Inc, which uses the same thin-film technology as GE has focused on."

It is happening... Not the same as printing, but that will come too most likely...

Very low efficiency, currently at 1% un-optimised, but potentially as cheep as crisp packets , tough and very very light... Might be good for providing night lighting or power to low wattage diagnostic equipment for places like refugee camps especially if you can get the efficiency up, remember light bulbs are surprisingly less bright than the sun so, with LEDs this should work even at its current efficiency.

Yes, if you watch the video of the solar cell airplane, they are only getting 1/2 A out of it when placed directly under an incandescent lamp. Granted, it isn't stated what the active area of the airplane cell is, or how that compares to what would be available from a higher efficiency cell in the same conditions. However, you won't be powering your shark mounted laser with it anytime soon!

I've been reading about "printed" solar cellsfor 10 years I think. Will they be in productionby 2099 ? What is the cost to produce NOW?( per KW per surface area )More important, what patents does MIT have andwill they release the patents to the public if the researchwas done at public expense --- or more probablypaid for by other subsidized research?

They are being put into use. Consider this recent article [bloomberg.com]:

The cost of solar cells, the main component in standard panels, has fallen 21 percent so far this year...

Think about that. A 21 percent drop in price so far this year??? New technologies are bringing down the cost of solar at a really incredible rate. That's not some futuristic, maybe it'll be available some day technology. It's what's on the market right now.,

Read down to the admission that it has pathetic output efficiency. They can measure the current on lab equipment. Unlikely they can do much of anything practical with it. An 8x10 sheet would be about as much juice as the solar cells in a solar calculator. If that.

After reading the article it doesn't sound like this technology is far off as the process sounds similar to things that are already done on an industrial scale. Yes it requires a vacuum chamber, but the ability to deposit the various materials is the same process that is done to deposit the shiny lining on the inside of plastic bags. Also it uses masks to lay the materials down in the correct locations which to me sounds similar to what is done in the semiconductor industry with photo-lithography. Also it d

I think the efficiency is currently too low for any practical application. Not sure about the cost, but...

OTOH, this *IS* a research project. There's probably lots of ways to improve it, and maybe they'll get around to looking at them. But maybe they'll head off in a different direction, and leave development to someone else. This is normal.

FWIW, *I* am more interested in solar shingles. At low cost and reasonable efficiency...but with long durability. This is also being worked on, though by a differe